5 Tips For Providing Quality Customer Service Training

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5 Good Tips For Providing Quality Customer Service TrainingGreat customer service starts with making great hires. But, that’s not where it ends. Providing excellent customer service has never been more critical. According to a recent marketing report by Gartner, 89% of businesses are now expected to compete on customer experience alone, compared to only 36% just a few years prior. No matter how talented your new hires are, they will not be successful without proper training. 

So, how can you provide a great training experience for your customer service team? Here are five tips to help you get your team started on the right foot.

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5 Best Practices for Providing Excellent Customer Service on Social Media

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5 Best Practices for Prodving excellent customer service on social media

If you were to check your company’s social media mentions right now, there is a very good chance you would find customers trying to get your attention. According to J.D. Power, 67% of online users are leveraging social media to get in touch with companies for support.  There is no question that ignoring them is a major customer service faux-pas. If your team is going to engage with customers on social media, there are a few best practices to keep in mind before you get started. 

Here are five tips for cultivating successful interactions with your customers and clients on social media. 

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RingCentral Gives Avaya the Gift of Focus

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Industry Voices on Avaya's Next Move via FonoloThe RingCentral-Avaya announcement from last week had a lot of industry watchers scratching their heads. The benefits to RingCentral were clear: They just bought an exclusive position for their UC offering with the world’s largest reseller ecosystem. But what is Avaya’s main benefit? Obviously, the cash component was a key to it. (Although I don’t fully understand the inner-workings of that cash-crunch.) But was hobbling their UC business too high a price to pay?

I think the real benefit here is that the deal frees Avaya to focus fully on its crown jewel, the contact center business. A Mitel merger, or any merger for that matter, was going to add confusion in that area. All the moves in the last few years make sense if you think of it in terms of clearing away distractions from a focus on contact center.

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Fonolo Investigates: How Retailers are Using Customer Data to Gain a Competitive Advantage

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5 Best Practices for Prodving excellent customer service on social media

Back in 2017, The Economist boldly declared that “The world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” As we head into 2020, no one would bat an eyelid at this statement. Big data is now used to address an increasing variety of business problems, from product launches to fraud and compliance.

As retail contact center leaders gear up for the busiest time of the year, big data may be the last thing on their minds. However, effective use of customer data offers a significant competitive advantage. This data, gleaned from social media, web visits, call logs, and other sources, can help you improve customer experience (CX) and maximize the value delivered. For example, retailers can provide personalized offers, reduce customer churn, and handle issues proactively.

Achieving this data-centric approach to CX may sound quixotic. However, the reality is that big data is working in the retail industry, and gleaning insights from how other brands have already put it into practice can start you on your own big data journey.

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume? [Webinar]

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume [Webinar]After the grounding of all Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, calls to Air Canada’s customer service prompted a recording that said call volume had “temporarily exceeded the company’s capacity to answer or even place callers on hold.” While this was an extreme event, every call center faces the same problem at one time or another: Unpredictable spikes in call volume. These causes can be understood, even anticipated. However, as in the case of Air Canada, these peak periods can also come as a shock to the system.

While today’s tech-savvy consumers are using more non-voice channels to connect with businesses, the act of picking up the phone to quickly and verbally resolve an issue (complex or otherwise) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The problem is that when calls spike, hold times spike, too. The effect of this on the customer experience is significant: 60% of customers will abandon a call after just one minute of waiting on hold. A quick glance at onholdwith.com confirms how much hold times infuriate consumers. If you want to improve customer loyalty and keep your CSAT scores healthy, you’ll need to make sure you have the right safety nets in place.

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How to Prepare Your Call Center For Spikes in Call Volume: The Financial Industry

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How to Prepare Your Call Center for Seasonal Spikes: UtilitiesLike most companies competing in the modern marketplace, the financial industry is subject to spikes in call volume due to seasonality. Despite the increased offering of digital channels for handling customer service requests, surges in call center activity for financial institutions are a regular occurrence. The reason for these surges varies: They may be the result of unexpected crises (such as a data breach) or more predictable events like annual mortgage renewals or tax season. Added to this are the challenges brought forth by the digital era, which have the financial sector rushing to adapt to meet the increased demands of contemporary customers.

As banks close their physical branches, with more services being offered through their digital channels, customers take to the phones to have their questions answered. 30% of customers calling in are doing so with “moment of truth encounters” that “have higher emotional stakes for the customers.” These become key interactions in maintaining – or losing – customer loyalty. When call volumes spike, the stakes are even higher as customers deal with frustratingly long hold times.

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Best Practices For Integrating Messaging Into Your Customer Service Strategy

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Best Practices For Integrating Messaging Into Your Customer Service Strategies

From SMS to live chats, messaging is becoming an important part of different companies’ sales and customer service strategy. Many major brands have adopted some form of messaging to assist customers prior to, during, and even after a sale has been made. This powerful feature has the capability to help companies both drive sales and increase customer satisfaction. 

Despite the rising popularity of messaging features like SMS, live chats, and social media messaging, it’s important to adopt this strategy in the most effective way. Here are a few best practices to ensure that your messaging strategy helps your customers, your employees, and your revenue.  Continue reading →

How Can Customer Service Agents Help Upsell and Cross-sell? 3 Techniques and Tips

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How Can Customer Service Agents Help Up-sell and Cross-sell Techniques and Tips by FonoloYour airline has updated your flight details, shortening an already tight connection time. After being on hold for 45 minutes, you spend a slow afternoon going back and forth with an agent before you are finally booked on another flight. Just as you’re about to hang up, the agent asks, “By the way, would you like to upgrade to our Premium Economy for only $70 more?”

You decline and make a mental note to never fly with that airline again.

Often customer service leaders believe that with a few simple moves, they can transform their customer service department from a cost center into a profit center. It’s just a matter of encouraging service reps to push your products or services aggressively. The problem is that, as the above example illustrates, this often comes across as clumsy, or worse still, tactless.

That is not to say that cross-selling or upselling isn’t a huge opportunity for your company. It just requires you to carefully train your agents on how to tactfully spot opportunities and subsequently act on them. This ensures that your customers can choose from the full range of products and services you offer, and, if done correctly, it can actually enhance the service your team provides.

Are you unsure of where to begin? Let’s take a look at three techniques and tips your customer service agents can use to drive upsells and cross-sell while on the front lines.

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“Are You Being Served?”: How 3 Century-Old Stores are Fighting to Stay Relevant for the Modern Customer

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How 3 Century Old Stores Stay Modern with Customer ServiceFor me, the soul of pre-21st Century customer service can be captured in three poignant words:

“Are you free?”

These immortal customer service dew-drops I heard echoed many times via the television set on the Saturday nights of my youth when PBS would play Are You Being Served? as part of its BBC comedy lineup. “Are you free?” is one of the most used phrases in the series, a way the staff alert one another to the fact that a customer is in need of immediate assistance. “Yes, I’m free,” they usually respond, then rushing to the customer’s aid.

“Are you free?” signals the kick-off point of a larger, tried-and-tested, personalized customer service procedure that eventually ends in a sale, usually of the latest and greatest in ladies’ wear or haberdashery.

It’s classic.

 

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How Call Centers Can Prepare For Unexpected Spikes

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How Call Centers Can Prepare for Unexpected Call SpikesWhen you work in a call center, an unexpected spike in call volume can quickly become problematic. If these spikes are not handled properly, customer loyalty can be lost.

While many call centers expect spikes during particular times of the year (for example, the holidays), there are some increases in volume that cannot be foreseen. Perhaps you’re a retail company and a piece of your clothing was recently featured on a celebrity and now everyone wants their hands on it. Or, you might be a bank dealing with a major data breach. Alternatively, a car company who recently announced a recall might receive a high volume of calls from owners of the model in question.

The good news is that there are many ways a call center manager can prepare for the unexpected. Let’s take a look at a few strategies that can be implemented when an unexpected surge in volume occurs. With these tips, and a few deep breaths, you and your team will be back on top of things in no time.

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